Bed-bottom support.



No. 767,700. PATENTEDAUG.16, 1904.

T. KLIPFEL.

BBD BOTTOM SUPPORT.

APPLIUATION FILED JAN. 11. 1904.

N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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No. 767,700. PATENTBD AUG. 16, 1904. T. KLIPFBL.

BED BOTTOM SUPPORT.

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PATENTED AUG. 16, 1904, ,'1. KLIPPBL.

BED BOTTOM SUPPORT.

APPLIGATION FILED JAN. 11. 1904. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

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PATENT OEEICE.

BED-BOTTOM SUPPORT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 767,700, dated August 16, 1904. i Application filed January 11,1904. Serial No. 188,631. (No model.)

T0 all whom/ it nea/y concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS KLIPEEL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bed-Bottom Supports, of which the following is a speeilication.

My invention relates generally to the art of bed structures, and has reference more particularly to that class of beds which are provided with a woven-wire or other sheet fabric bed-bottom designed to directly support the mattress and coverings and in itself present the necessary elastic or spring quality to render the bed comfortable.

Where a sheet of woven wire 'secured either at its upper and lower ends or on all four sides to the rectangular frame of the bed-bottom has been employed, such sheet has sometimes been found to possess an undesirable degree of iexibility, bending and bowing or bellying locally under the weight of the occupant, and thus giving the bed-bottom too much the form and character of a hammock. Numerous devices in the nature of underlying supporting members have heretofore been adopted and tried to prevent this, with but partial success.

It is the object of the present invention to entirely and satisfactorily remedy this fault in woven-wire and similar bed-bottoms without at the same time detraeting from the elastic quality thereof which has rendered such material desirable for use in this relation; and to this end the invention resides as to its leading characteristics in a novel and improved form and construction of flexible support, which may also be elastic, substantially as hereinafter described, underlying and coperating with the woven-wire or other sheet of the bed-bottom in such a manner that weight applied to the latter acts, through the support, to stretch the woven-wire sheet laterally, and thus prevent the undesirable bending and sagging above referred to, maintaining the sheet substantially taut and distributing the strains uniformly thereover.

My invention will be better understood when considered in connection with the accompanying' drawings, whereinl Figure l is a bottom plan view of a bed-bottom equipped with my improvement in its preferred form. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal edge view of the same. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary detail, on a much-enlarged scale, illustrating clearly the manner of engagement of the support with the woven-wire sheet of the bedbottom; and Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are views cor` responding, respectively, with Figs. 1, 2, and 8, but illustrating a modified form of the invention.

Referring to the drawings, 10 and 11 designate, respectively, the side and end rails of a rectangular bed-bottom frame, secured together at the corners by bolts 12.

13 designates as an entirety the usual sheet of woven-wire fabric, which at its ends passes over the end lrails 11 and is secured in position by clamp-rails 14, nailed or otherwise secured against the outer edges of said end rails 11, with the end portions of the fabric clamped therebetween.

Secured to the several bolts 12 on the upper side ofthe bed-bottom frame and directly beneath the woven-wire fabric are hooks 15, which extend' diagonally inwardly of the frame and at their inner hooked ends engage, respectively, one end of a corresponding series of tension coil-springs 16. The inner ends of corresponding springs on the same side of the bed-bottomy frame are connected by a bent wire, flexible, but ofa high degree of tensional strength, each wire comprising a pair of oppositely-inelined sections 17, extending obliquely or diagonally nearly across the frame, and an intermediate integral short section 18, which extends longitudinally of the frame, near each side thereof.

19 designates each of a pair of parallel rods disposed transversely of the bed-bottom frame and run through the mesh of the woven-wire fabric. At one end these rods are hooked over or otherwise united to the longitudinal section 18 of the main wire supports, as best shown in Fig. 2, near the ends of said section 18, While at their other ends they are similarly united to a rod 20, that is threaded through the wire coil 13 on lthe longitudinal margin of the woven-Wire sheet, which` rod 2O may extend the entire or a part of the length of the fabric, its office being to afford an abut- IOO ment to resist and distribute thrust strains imparted thereto through the rods 19 when the bed is in use, as more particularly hereinafter described.

VIt being understood that the system of diagonal and transverse bracing hereinabove described is applied to the under surface of the woven-wire sheet, it will be readily apparent that a weight imparted to the upper surface thereof, such as the wei g'ht of an occupant or occupants of the bed, acting through the usual mattress, will tend to depress the fabric more particularly throughout the central portion thereof, and such depression will tend to bend or flex the diagonal members 17 of the wire braces, which latter being virtually anchored at thc Vfour corners of the frame will exert an endwise thrust upon the transverse rods 19, the two pairs of the latter imparting these thrust strains equally and in opposite directions to the longitudinal rods 20, lying' within the marginal coils of the fabric, thus tending to distend the fabric laterally and distribute the strains throughout the same, and thus to a large extent neutralizing' the sagging' or bowing tendency and maintaining a practically uniform and straight surface transversely of the fabric, there being of course a slight dipof the fabric between its ends, but this being' confined within desirable limits by the resistance of the fabric to the longitudinal stretching, combined with the support aiforded by the described improvement. '.lhe springs 16, while not absolutely essential, are desirable as contributing' a certain elasticity to the entire un derlying' support without interfering with the capability of the latter to prevent excessive local displacements of the fabric under the weight or weights to which it is subjected.

In Figs. L1, 5, and 6 Al have illustrated a modified form, of the same inventive idea, of means for the attainment of the result described, wherein thc wires 17 18 and their connections to the corners and the frame are substituted by simple cables, preferably of wire, united at their ends in any suitable way to the ends of the bed-bottom frame at or near the corners of the latter, as by means of the clamp-bars 141, each of these cables consisting of a pair of oppositcly-disposed members Q1 and 22, extending' obliquely across and directly beneath the woven-wire fabric, the angles formed at the junctions of the oblique sections 21 and 22 passing through hooks or eyes 23 on the ends of transversely-disposed 'strutrods 23, which latter are threaded through the mesh of the fabric and are anchored at their opposite or outer ends to rods 24, disposed similarly to and corresponding in function with the rods 20, already described. The operation of this modified form of the invention is upon the same principle as that already described in connection with the principal form, difering therefrom only in deg'rec of results attained, being somewhat less elastic and perfect in its results, but considerably more economical in respect to cost of manufacture.

It is obvious that still other modifications and variations within the' principle of the invention might readily suggest themselves to the mind of the skilled mechanic upon being made acquainted with the forms of the inven tion hereinabove described, and hence 1 do not limit the latter to the particular embodi ments thereof herein shown and described, except to thc extent indicated in specific claims.

I claim- 1. The combination with a bed-bottom frame andabed-bottom sheet mounted therein, of an underlying supporting and tensioning device for the latter, comprising flexible tension members anchored at their ends to the frame and extending obliquely across the latter from opposite sides, and strut members secured at one end, respectively, to the intermediate portion of said tension members and at the other end to the longitudinal side margins of the sheet, substantially as described.

2. The combination with a bed-bottom frame and a woven-fabric sheet constituting the bed-bottom mounted therein, of an under] ying supporting and tensioning' device for the latter, comprising flexible tension members anchored at their ends to the frame and extending obliquely across the latter from opposite sides, and strut members lying' within the mesh of the fabric secured at one end to the intermediate portions of said tension members, respectively, and at the other end to the opposite margins of the fabric, substantially as described.

3. The combination with a bed-,bottom frame and a woven-fabric sheet constituting the bed-bottom mounted therein, of an underlying supporting and tensioning device for the latter, comprising flexible and elastic tension members anchored at their ends to the corners of the frame and extending' obliquely across the latter from opposite sides, and strut-rods lying transversely of and within the mesh of the fabric secured at one end to the intermediate portions of said tension members', respectively, and at the other end to the longitudinal side margins of the fabric, substantially as described.

1. The combination with a bed -bottom frame and a woven-fabric sheet constituting thebed-bottom mounted therein, lof means for supporting and tensioning the latter, said means consisting of a pair of duplicate devices each comprising a bent wire elastically secured at its two ends to upper and lower corners of the frame on the same side of the latter and extending obliquely across and beneath the fabric sheet from said corners, respectively, with a short'intermediate portion lying' longitudinally of the frame, and

Astrut-rods disposed within the mesh of the loo d IIO 'IZO

fabric and connected at their respective ends With said intermediate portion of the bent Wire andthe longitudinal margin of the fabric on that side of the frame to Which said bent Wire is secured, said duplicate devices crossing and overlapping each other, substantially as described.

5. The combination with a bed-bottom frame and a Woven-Wire-fabric sheet constituting the bed-bottom mounted therein, of the herein-described supporting and tensioning device for the latter comprising the oppositely-disposed intersecting bent Wires each having the oppositely-inclined oblique members 17 and intermediate longitudinal member 18, the tension-springs 16, the hooks 15 anchored to the corners of the bed-bottom frame, the strut-rods 19 laid in the mesh of the fabric, and the anchor-rods 2O lying Within the side marginal coils of the fabric and receiving and distributing the thrust of the rods 19, substantially as described.

THOMAS KLIPFEL. l/Vitnesses:

SAMUEL N. POND, L. F. MCCREA. 

